Vietnam – Day 6 – Back to Hanoi
I woke up around 7 this morning. The mechanic, Nam, got there around 7:30. He opened up his shop and the invited me to breakfast next door. We had beef pho. We were served quickly ate quickly and just left. I guess he has an account with his neighbor.
Then Nam proceeded to work. A few customers pulled in just when when he started on my bike and he jumped on those jobs as they had to get to work. Then he offer his motorcycle for me to use. I accepted and went exploring. A few miles down the road through a town and I to the countryside the road deadended at a gate with a guard and guardhouse. I was about to turn around thinking I was someplace I should not be but the guard ushered me over and directed me to the guardhouse where a girl told me it was 100000 dong to get in. Ok I thought. Let’s see. So it turned out to be a Thung Nham Bird Park. A drive a noter couple k ended at a parking lot. I parked there and proceeded to explore. As you can see from the pictures this was more than a bird park. There were caves, gardens, orchards and lakes. And I was literally the only person there except some caretakers in the gardens. It was really peaceful on the grounds and eeirey in the caves as they were dead quiet and very rustic.
After the park I went back to the shop. The bike was ready. I took it for a test drive. Not perfect, but it would get me to Hanoi. So off I went. About 5 km into the ride the clutch cable came off. The throttle also seemed to be sticking. So there I was on the side of the road again. No more shop for me I thought. So I fixed the clutch myself and adjusted the carb as best I could. I was back on the road.
A couple of hours later I was back in Hanoi. I dropped the bike at the shop for them to fix it and checked into a new hostel as my old one was full. My new hostel was pretty close by, and they had a free beer happy hour.
So after checkin I took a much needed shower. I got dinner and went to the lake. There is always so much activity there. So as I sat and people watched, a young university Student sat down next to me. She wanted to practice her English. I said of course. We chatted for a bit and she left. About 5 minutes later another student that had been hanging around not too far off worked up the nerve to come over. He needed practice too! It seems that while the primary language in Vietnam is Vietnamese, but English is secondary and universal for all internaionals. All the employees and customers at the hostels, whether Slovenian, Dutch, German or Spanish all speak English.
So my last student couldn’t break himself away and it was now beer o clock. So, I politely excused myself and went back to the hostel. The mean age of the kids at the hostel is probably about 21 with the majority being 19. So after chatting with the gap year kids and exhausting the free beer I took off for my last night in Hanoi. There were a few things I missed so I am glad I got this opportunity.
I tried some more street foods on my way to a really cool rooftop coffee house Fried batters bananas, fried batter balls like munchkins, and fried dough with seasame seeds and banana chips. All very yummy. Along the way I saved a toddlers life. It was surreal. I was walking down one of the many crazy streets. Tons of traffic was whizzing back and forth, when I see a toddler in front of me walking into the road .I hear the distressed shouts of a Vietnamese mother from the other side of some tables on the corner. Insinctually I scooped up the toddler inches from the traffic and held her until her mother got there. In broken English her mother thanked me over and over. All in a day’s work ma’am. The coffer house overlooks the lake. It was really beautiful.
After a call to Angie, I decided to checkout the Night Market on my way back to the hostel. It wasn’t much different than during the day except the shops were all lit up. I should also mention that in Hanoi the streets are lined with thousands of stores right next to each other all with only 10 feet of frontage. If you were to try to visit every store in just the Old Quarter it would take many weeks.
So as I walked back to the hostel down a couple of dark streets, of which there are very few, I thought how safe it seemed. Some street restaurants don’t have lights, but people still sit there in the dark and eat and socialize. In some other places I have visited I notice “lurkers” but I saw none here. Everybody seems too happy and too busy for that.
After a few more minutes I was back to the hostel and back to bed
Thankfully you were there for that toddler! Wow! And what's with all the fried food you are eating? Caves are so breathtaking as well as everything else you posted!
Yeah, I had to try the fried food. Tons of carbs in everything as rice and rice noodles are the staple. I am majorly craving protein right now.